AN ANALYSIS OF SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS’S TAX AND …

AN ANALYSIS OF SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS'S TAX AND TRANSFER PROPOSALS

Gordon Mermin, Len Burman, and Frank Sammartino May 9, 2016

ABSTRACT

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders proposes significant tax increases that would raise $15.3 trillion over the next decade. All income groups would pay more tax, but most new revenue would come from highincome households and particularly those with very high incomes. Sanders would also implement new government benefits--notably government-financed single-payer health care, long-term services and supports, tuition-free public colleges and universities, and family leave benefits--and expand Social Security benefits. The Tax Policy Center finds the new government benefits would more than offset new taxes for 95 percent of households, but the combined tax and transfer plan would increase federal budget deficits by more than $18 trillion over the next decade.

We are grateful to Melissa Favreault, Sarah Gault, Howard Gleckman, Elaine Maag, Kim Rueben, Eric Toder, and Roberton Williams for helpful comments on earlier drafts. Lydia Austin prepared the draft for publication. The authors are solely responsible for any errors. The views expressed do not reflect the views of the Sanders campaign or of those who kindly reviewed drafts. The Tax Policy Center is nonpartisan. Nothing in this report should be construed as an endorsement of or opposition to any campaign or candidate. For information about the Tax Policy Center's approach to analyzing candidates' tax plans, please see . The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Tax Policy Center or its funders.

In March, the Tax Policy Center estimated that presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders's tax plan would increase tax revenue by $15.3 trillion over the next decade (Sammartino et al. 2016). All income groups would pay some additional tax, but most new revenue would come from high-income households. But taxes are only part of the story. Along with an expansion of Social Security benefits, Senator Sanders proposes a number of new government benefits, including single-payer health care, long-term services and supports, free public college tuition, and paid family leave. Those proposals affect the distribution of winners and losers and the federal budget deficit. For most households, additional government benefits would more than offset the tax increases. But the additional revenue would fall far short of paying for the new spending programs. Without more revenue, the Sanders plan would increase federal deficits by more than $18 trillion over the next decade.

This analysis estimates the effect of the Sanders tax and transfer proposals by combining results from separate Urban Institute models. We use the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Microsimulation Model (TPC model), the same model used to simulate the Sanders tax proposals, to simulate family leave benefits and the net benefit of proposed free tuition at public institutions. We incorporate results from the Urban Institute Health Policy Center's Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) for his single-payer health care plan and estimates from the Urban Institute Income and Benefits Policy Center's Dynamic Simulation of Income Model (DYNASIM3) for his long-term services and supports and Social Security plans. We do not model other spending proposals, such as increased investment in infrastructure or the youth jobs program, because it is difficult to quantify their benefit to families. Because we combine results from separate models relying on different underlying data sources, these results are less precise than if they had come from a unified model of taxes and spending.1

The combination of the Sanders tax and transfer proposals would increase average household income, net of taxes paid and transfers received, by nearly $4,300 in 2017. Households in the bottom 95 percent of the income distribution would, on average, receive a net benefit while the highest-income households would pay more in new taxes than they would receive in additional government transfers. The combined plan would increase annual federal budget deficits by $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years.

PROPOSALS

Senator Sanders has proposed expanding social insurance programs, increasing government investment in physical and human capital, and aggressively addressing climate change. He would pay for those and other programs by raising taxes on individuals and businesses. This analysis focuses on changes to taxes and social insurance programs.

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Taxes

Senator Sanders would increase federal income, payroll, business, and estate taxes significantly and impose new excise taxes on financial transactions and carbon. In March, the Tax Policy Center estimated that those changes would boost federal revenue by $15.3 trillion between 2016 and 2026 (Sammartino et al. 2016). The plan would increase tax burdens for households at all income levels, but the increase would be much larger both in absolute dollars and as a share of after-tax income for the highest-income households.2

Single-Payer Health Care

Senator Sanders proposes a single-payer health care system that would replace the existing employer-based health insurance system as well as Medicare, Medicaid, and the programs established under the Affordable Care Act.3 The new benefit would be comprehensive and eliminate individual cost-sharing. It would be significantly more generous than current-law Medicare or typical private insurance. Holahan et al. (2016) estimate that the new program would increase total public and private spending on health care, other than long-term services and supports, by $5.5 trillion over 10 years. However, federal spending on acute care would rise by $29 trillion as it would replace virtually all private spending--employer-sponsored health insurance, private nongroup coverage, and net premiums paid for insurance purchased under the Affordable Care Act--as well as state spending on Medicaid. Although the details and total cost of the Sanders health care plan are uncertain (Holahan et al. 2016) its cost would significantly exceed the revenues raised by his tax plan.

Long-Term Services and Supports

Senator Sanders would also provide comprehensive coverage for long-term services and supports (LTSS).4 This would replace both Medicaid LTSS spending and some portion of private spending on LTSS and informal caregiving by family members. The DYNASIM3 model estimates that the Sanders proposal would increase total spending (federal, state, and private) on LTSS by over $1 trillion. However, federal spending on LTSS would increase by $2.9 trillion over the next 10 years because it would supplant state and private spending (Holahan et al. 2016).

Eliminate Undergraduate Tuition at Public Colleges and Universities

Senator Sanders proposes to eliminate tuition for undergraduates at public colleges and universities, with the federal government paying 67 percent of the cost for states choosing to eliminate tuition.5 We estimate that federal spending under the program, net of reductions in education tax credits, would increase by $807 billion over 10 years. This estimate relies on three important assumptions: (1) college attendance would not increase, (2) students would not switch from private to public colleges, and (3) public colleges and universities would not increase tuition. The estimated cost thus reflects only a reallocation of spending from private sources to public

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ones. Federal costs could be significantly higher if those assumptions do not hold. On the other hand, we assume that all states would choose to participate in the matching-grant program and waive tuition. As the recent expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act suggests, this may not be the case.

Family and Medical Leave

The Sanders proposal includes up to 12 weeks of partial earnings replacement for workers who take time off for their own serious health condition; the birth or adoption of a child; or a serious health condition for a child, parent, or spouse/domestic partner. Workers would need to be eligible under the Social Security disability program with a history of work in the 12 months prior to taking leave. The benefit would replace two-thirds of earnings up to a maximum of $4,000 per month.6 Assuming all eligible single adults and lower-earning spouses and half of eligible higherearning spouses would participate, we estimate program spending at $270 billion over 10 years.7

Expand Social Security

Senator Sanders proposes to increase Social Security benefits several ways.8 He would immediately increase the annual cost-of-living adjustment and raise the minimum benefit for new retirees to as much as 125 percent of the federal poverty level for retirees who worked at least 30 years. Senator Sanders would gradually phase in an additional benefit increase for new retirees, especially those with lower lifetime incomes, starting in 2020.9 While most benefit increases would occur outside the 10-year budget window, the Office of the Chief Actuary projects the proposal would increase Social Security benefits by $188 billion over the next ten years.10

DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS

We use the TPC model as the starting point for our distributional analysis and incorporate results from the HIPSM and DYNASIM3 models. We use the TPC model to simulate the change in tax burden under the Sanders plan by quintile of adjusted gross income (AGI) in 2017. We use AGI as opposed to our usual income classifier, expanded cash income, because it measures income before considering taxes and transfers and because it is available in HIPSM and DYNASIM3.11 As described above, we also use the TPC model to simulate the net benefits of free tuition at public colleges and family medical leave.

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TABLE 1

Senator Bernie Sanders's Tax and Transfer Proposals

Distribution of change in taxes and transfers by AGI percentile, calendar year 2017

Average AGI

Average federal tax

c h an gea

Average federal tax

c h an ge as % of AGI

Average c h an ge in acute health care benefits b

Average

change Average

in long-term family leave

care benefits c

benefitd

Average c h an ge in higher edu c ati on benefits e

Average c h an ge in Social S ecurity benefits f

Average trans fer c h an ge

Average

Average

Average

trans fer change in net change in net

c h an ge as % of AGI

trans fers g

trans fers as % of AGI

Lowest quintile S econd quintile Middle quintile Fourth quintile

Top quintile All

3,592 19,550 41,437 78,563 267,160 63,940

209 1,858 4,450 8,528 42,719 8,964

5.8

8,677

9.5

8,670

10.7

12,086

10.9

16,018

16.0

18,106

14.0

11,954

1,322 617 570 410 413 725

7

239

75

395

156

306

214

443

301

974

130

426

20

10,266

6

9,763

2

13,120

7

17,092

15

19,807

10

13,246

285.8 49.9 31.7 21.8 7.4 20.7

10,056 7,905 8,670 8,564

-22,912 4,282

279.9 40.4 20.9 10.9 -8.6 6.7

Addendum

80?90 129,041

14,199

11.0

18,109

417

279

854

16

19,674

15.2

5,476

4.2

90?95 185,008

18,913

10.2

18,453

529

333

1,257

10

20,582

11.1

1,669

0.9

Top 5 percent 656,241

130,275

19.9

17,733

281

314

937

15

19,281

2.9

-110,994

-16.9

Sources : Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Microsimulation Model (TPC model), Urban Institute's HIPS M and DYNAS IM3 models, and Holahan et al. (2016). Notes : AGI = adjusted gross income. Baseline is current law. Analysis includes filing and nonfiling units but excludes those that are dependents of other tax units. Tax units with negative adjusted gross income are excluded from their respective income class but are included in the totals. The income percentile classes used in this table are based on the income distribution for the entire population and contain an equal number of people, not tax units. The breaks are (in 2015 dollars): 20% $10,982; 40% $27,191; 60% $55,081; 80% $102,081; 90% $150,989; 95% $213,017. a Baseline is current law (including provisions in the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016). Proposal includes individual, corporate, payroll, excise, and estate tax provisions in S enator S anders's tax plan. For details, see S ammartino et al. (2016). b Includes change in federal, state, and local government benefits for acute health care. Average acute government health benefits by quintile for non-Medicare population from Urban Institute's HIPS M model adjusted to produce same total spending when applied to TPC model tax units. Total government acute health benefits for the Medicare population from Holahan et al. (2016) distributed to tax units with current-law Medicare enrollees in TPC model. c Includes change in federal and state long-term care benefits. Average change in long-term benefits spending by quintile from DYNAS IM3 adjusted to produce same total spending when applied to TPC model tax units. d Family leave benefit estimated in TPC model based on birth rates from National Vital S tatistics and incidence of informal caregiving among adults in the Health and R etirement S tudy reported in Butrica and Karamcheva (2014). e Includes change in federal and state spending on tuition for undergraduates at public universities net of reductions in existing financial aid and education credits. S imulated by TPC model's education module. f Average change in S ocial S ecurity benefits by quintile from DYNAS IM3 adjusted to produce same total spending when applied to TPC model tax units. Benefit changes are small in 2017 because the S anders S ocial S ecurity plan would phase in over time. If the plan were implemented at 2035 levels in 2017, the average change in S ocial S ecurity benefits would be $235. g Net transfers is defined as transfer payments made to each tax unit less taxes.

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